A varied buffet of fresh musical experiences from recent decades and from the mid-1700s.
Hyperion
Classical Music CD Review: Hensel & Mendelssohn String Quartets
This is an album of real spirit and vigor, a mix of the thoughtful and the exciting, all bracingly recorded.
November Short Fuses – Materia Critica
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Classical Album Review: The Nash Ensemble — Bruch’s Chamber Music
One could hardly ask for more persuasive Bruch advocacy than what the Nash Ensemble offers here.
Classical CD Review: György Ligeti’s “Études” — Well Played and Clearly Lived In
Throughout these Études, Driver’s playing marries tonal warmth with textural precision.
Listening During Covid, Part 4: Fascinating Vocal Adventures from Different Times and Places
I may be in quarantine, but music can transport me back to the Middle Ages, or to the court of Catherine the Great of Russia, or, via Donizetti, to an imagined India.
Classical CD Reviews: Listening During COVID — Beethoven’s Jesus, Liszt’s Variations on “Norma,” and Janáček’s Animal Opera
Concert halls and opera houses remain closed — but unusual musical experiences await in this era of social isolation.
Classical CD Reviews: Beethoven Complete Piano Concerto Box Sets
It’s Beethoven’s 250th birthday year: reviews of four sets of the complete piano concertos from, respectively, Paul Lewis, Stewart Goodyear, Inon Barnatan, and Stephen Hough.
Classical CD Review: “Janáček: Solo Piano,” Schumann & Mendelssohn Chamber Music, Philip Glass Piano Works
Pianist Thomas Adès proves himself a sympathetic champion of Czech composer Leoš Janáček; it’s not often that a Schumann-Mendelssohn album focuses on the music of Clara and Fanny (rather than Robert and Felix); Jenny Lin’s performances of piano pieces by Philip Glass don’t lack for style or technical command.
Classical CD Reviews: Beach & Elgar Piano Quintets, Mark Abel’s “The Cave of Wondrous Voice,” and Ibragimova plays Shostakovich
It took more than a century, but Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet has finally got the recording it deserves; it would be hard to beat the all-star line-up featured in The Cave of Wondrous Voice; and ready for some flawless Shostakovich?